Moosehead taps into craft beer market with new small-batch brewery

Moosehead is Canada’s oldest and largest independent brewer, but this weekend it will be the new kid on the block of small-batch breweries.

It’s been a couple of years in the making, including one false start when a planned 10,000-square-foot location on the Saint John waterfront was cancelled, but its new small-batch brewery and taproom on the city’s west side is scheduled to open Saturday at 10 a.m.

Moosehead Breweries president and CEO Andrew Oland is excited.

“We want to showcase our passion for beer,” he said, as workers put finishing touches on the new 2,500-square-foot facility, which is attached to the company’s large historic brewhouse on Main Street West and used to be part of the packaging warehouse.

“It’s all about inviting the community into what has – prior to now – been very much an industrial facility, which hasn’t looked that welcoming and hasn’t been that welcoming.”

A growing interest in craft beer and demand for variety prompted the move, said Oland, describing it as both a challenge and an opportunity.